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All posts for the month September, 2009

That’s something to keep in mind when asking, and answering, questions.What is your definition of "mighty"? Obviously you can kill more people with a sword, and with pen you write the words that start the swords, and the words that stop them. You can dip a blade in blood and write with it, if that appeals. It is not the instrument you use, but the hand and mind that control it.

Essentially, we, the human race, must recognize when we are being stupid, and find the determination to use our intelligence to avoid the stupidity. It is a human paradox that we can be stupid and intelligent at the same time, even using our intelligence to create bigger and more disastrous tools to be stupid with.

Did it TAKE war to result in an outcome, or is that simply what we used?

We Americans had a war for independence. Canada didn’t.

We had a bloody war that ended slavery. Slavery ended almost everywhere else without a war.

Though there was no way to stop Hitler’s aggression without war, his was a movement resulting from an unnecessary world war before him, which was worsened by US involvement.

War leads to more war. So does injustice– imposing unfair conditions by means of military or economic dominance.

Ironically, our worst weapon may have resulted in more peace, by forcing us to THINK, finally, of the intolerable consequences of using it in war. Perhaps it would be wisest for us to insist that all capable nations possess nuclear weapons.

Of course our clever stupidity enabled smaller and equally unjustifiable wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq (twice), and use of dominance many times to impose injustice, humiliation, and hardship in several places. It is easier to have war when you have enemies, and we’ve created plenty of motivated potential enemies.

To answer the original question, the pen, guided by true intelligence and rational thought, can inspire the same in others, teaching the values and advantages of harmonious cooperation rather than conflict, of thinking of the whole rather than only one part, of equality and tolerance.

The sword can end the lives of men, women, and children, and bring misery and sorrow to the survivors. And anger; more swordplay…and so it goes.

We, the citizens of the US, through the leaders we have chosen in
democratic election throughout our history are responsible for every
atrocity, every death in every needless war that our nation has waged.

That
is true despite the fact that few of us would be willing to personally
shoot, bomb, or poison another human being for any reason other than
self-defense. It is true despite the fact that if a candidate promised
to wage unprovoked war against another country, most of us would
decline to vote for him. It is true despite the fact that corporate
money, not the will of the voters, determines much of the policy our
officials choose to follow.

Why are we responsible? Because
however unresponsive and corrupt our system became, it is because we
let it get that way. We, the mostly apathetic eligible voters, half of
whom often don’t vote, and too many of the rest don’t study the issues,
and too many who don’t think the system can be changed.

But we
have proved it can be changed. We have started in the right direction,
but that won’t be enough. We have to continue, to build momentum,
persevere over time; it didn’t get this way overnight, and it will take
years to fix it. But it won’t be done by those who simply shrug and
say, "It’s not our fault; there’s nothing we can do".